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Residents and service providers press council for data and a study session as county takes over ECR SSA reentry program
Summary
Presenters from the Erie County Reentry Services and Support Alliance outlined a transition of services to county oversight and highlighted data-collection gaps; public commenters urged council to delay funding until independent evidence is provided, while reentry practitioners and partners defended the program and called for inclusive study sessions.
City council heard a presentation and extensive public comment on June 3 about the Erie County Reentry Services and Support Alliance (ECR SSA), which county officials began operating in early May. The presentation described the program’s goals, current operations and longstanding concerns about gaps in client data after prior administrative transitions.
Sheila Sillman, introduced by Council President Titus as a program advisor and former ECR SSA director, told council the program began as a countywide strategy in 2013 and was designed as a one-stop model for people leaving incarceration. "We wanted to serve kind of like as a one-stop shop," Sillman said, describing intensive case management and resource coordination as core components.
Sillman said a spreadsheet-based tracking system developed earlier was used through prior operators, but that after program transitions the new client-management software was not consistently populated, producing missing or incomplete records. In a cited window, she said less than 7% of referrals were coming from jails and prisons, indicating weak pre-entry engagement. "No data to support reduction in recidivism...lack of communication with partners," she said, urging council to examine the full dataset in a study session.
Bob Hess, identified as ECR SSA program manager, outlined current operations at the program's office and listed partner organizations now connected to weekly in-office staffing (CareerLink, Erie County Drug & Alcohol, Pyramid Healthcare, UPMC Safe Harbor, GCAC and others). Hess emphasized new hiring, relationships with employers willing to hire reentry clients, and a memorandum of understanding designed to protect client privacy when sharing information with adult probation.
Public comment became a central feature of the meeting. Multiple speakers urged caution: Jennifer Kennedy told council the program had "served hundreds of people last year" and asked why a proven community-led model would be replaced without sharing the data. Michelle Dover Shaw and others demanded county officials not receive funding until the program's operations and oversight issues were clarified.
Other residents and practitioners offered contrasting views. Longtime practitioners including Alan Brown and Darrell Craig Sr. defended the program’s outcomes and argued that disrupting services would harm individuals returning from incarceration and employers who hire them. Mary Beulah of Erie Together and other advocates said the strategy that shaped the program’s model was developed with diverse stakeholders and argued county oversight could provide stable funding and allow better fidelity to the model.
Council members accepted repeated requests to schedule a study session to review procurement, data and program delivery in more detail and asked staff to gather documents and metrics for the next session. Multiple commenters also asked that council directly solicit people served by the program to testify at the study session.
Next steps: Council will schedule a study session to examine the ECR SSA transition, request program data and documentation from staff and community partners, and defer any final funding decisions until that review is complete.
